Rukmavati Guest House Mandvi

To me Rukmavati Guest House (Mandvi, Gujarat) was recommended by Mr Krutarthsinh Jadeja from Devpur. When I walked into the place I saw a Tripadvisor sticker on the door. I made a mental note to talk about it. I was greeted by Mr. Vinod the owner of the place. After some confusion over my arrival dates, he took me to my room and asked if I would stay. I happily decided to stay.

Rukmavati Guest House is a budget place so I paid 600 rupees per night for the room. It was the single occupancy rate. There is no catering (other than tea, very important and basic breakfast) available but you can order by the phone from local restaurants for food to be delivered to the guest house which then will be served to you. It worked fine for me.

While handing over my identity proof I started chatting with Vinod Bhai. His wife and he told me that their twin daughters attend school in the US as Mr. Vinod’s elder brother is there. I asked his wife if she missed the kids. She said the kids would have moved out of Mandvi anyway after 10th as there were no good schools around, so they might as well move to the US.

It was one of the rare days when I sat for two hours and read a book at the terrace of the Rukmavati Guest House. It has a huge terrace, part of it you can see in the video. Now that is how a vacation should be! But I do so little of reading a book or doing nothing! In the night I was sitting on a table outside my room to have dinner. My companions were a lady from Spain and a gentleman from Austria. The lady asked if I had a family to which I said yes. Then she qualified it, was my family with me at Mandvi, to which I said no. It looked like that answered the question she had!

The Austrian gentleman told me that in the about 10 years ago he was supposed to go to Indonesia that didn’t happen. He came to India instead and since then he has been coming back to India. Indonesia never happened! After talking for 45 minutes we decided to call it a day. We never asked each-other’s names!

But the most killer conversation was with Vinod Bhai when I asked him about Tripadvisor sticker. This is what he told me- “yes some people go and write somewhere on the internet, something called Tripadvisor. Then one day Tripadvisor sent me some papers saying mine is a good guest house. I thought I would put the sticker on the gate.” When I expressed my surprise he added, “I believe in running my guest house well, rest is not in my hands.”

The next day I had an early start to the Rannof Kutch. If you are looking for a budget accommodation in Mandvi you will like Rukmavati Guest House.

Mridula Dwivedi

I started my India travel blog, Travel Tales from India in 2005. In 2016 I realized Travel Tales from India and Abroad better reflected my writings. I love to walk and ride in metros around the world. I have not been everywhere, I am not even close, but it is on my list. I also quit my job as a professor in 2015, it was a happening year! I did a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur ages ago!

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